Scarbinsky: What a difference a year makes for Auburn

Auburn coach Gene Chizik salutes the fans after stirring comeback win over West Virginia on Saturday night. (The Birmingham News / Hal Yeager)AUBURN -- It's easy to go overboard now, even if the lakes and rivers have retreated to normal depths.

Auburn has beaten West Virginia 41-30 on a night when Auburn looked defeated early and often.

Auburn has come from behind in the fourth quarter for the first time in just its third game under Gene Chizik.

Auburn is 3-0 and should be ranked in someone’s poll if anyone with a vote has been paying attention.

So, sure, it’s so easy to go overboard. It’s harder to mark the exact time and place when the Auburn fan base got carried away by a fresh start under a new coach, but let’s give it a shot.

The time: 7:11 p.m. on Saturday Sept. 19.

The place: The student section at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It was at that precise moment, in that general location, when a soaked and shirtless young man held aloft a t-shirt with a giddy, lofty message:

‘‘Bama Don’t Want None.”

Clearly, all that rain on the Plain had seeped into his brain. Alabama is a better team than last year, which means Alabama is one of the best teams in the nation. Again.

Bama don’t want none? Of Auburn? Are you sure?

The last time Auburn played Alabama, the Tigers didn’t score none.

Rather than taunting the Tide, it seemed like a better idea at the time to forget Nick Saban’s team and focus on his home state.

West Virginia.

Outside of Alabama, no one humiliated Auburn last season like West Virginia. Two possessions in Saturday night, Mountaineers had picked up where they left off.

They scored two straight touchdowns to run their streak of consecutive points scored against Auburn over two seasons to 45. Auburn’s tackling was so poor, radio analyst Stan White would say, it looked like West Virginia had brought back those old-school tear-away jerseys.

It was at that moment that the Tigers arrived at the first real gut-check of the Chizik era.

Would they give it right back to the visitors or give up? Which way would they go?

A year ago, on a cold night in Morgantown, the Tigers did the worst thing a football team can do. They quit.

This team, this program, has come a long way since that night.

This team didn’t quit. This team stopped grasping at air and started tackling. This team stopped surrendering easy points and started scoring them.

The skies seemed to clear when Auburn pulled even midway through the third quarter, and then West Virginia showed some grit of its own by driving to take back the lead with a field goal.

How many times have you seen a team come back strong but come up short because it couldn’t quite inch in front? This was not one of those times. This is not one of those teams.

There was a moment early that demonstrated what this new staff is about. The Auburn offense had done next to nothing, so wide receivers coach Trooper Taylor decided to do something.

He asked the offensive regulars to gather around him and put their hands together, and they did.

It was a simple gesture, certainly, and a silly gesture, maybe, but for a program that came apart a year ago, coming together is progress.

This team didn’t run or run away like it did in the first two games, but this team came together in a new and encouraging way. And came back. And won. Again.

It’s still a long way to Alabama. But if any team has traveled a great distance in a short time, it’s Auburn.